Republican Roy S. Moore and Democrat G. Douglas Jones, candidates in the Dec. 12, 2017 Alabama Senate special election. (File photos)
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that counties in Alabama can destroy their digital voting records in the Roy Moore-Doug Jones race, and will not have to preserve those records
“Following an eleventh-hour order instructing voting officials in Alabama to keep the digital ballots generated in Tuesday’s controversial Senate election, the state’s Supreme Court has issued a stay to block that decision.
The order to preserve the records was issued by the Montgomery County Circuit Court on Monday afternoon — less than 24 hours before voting was set to begin — and the stay that will effectively nullify that order was issued late Monday night.
“All counties employing digital ballot scanners in the Dec. 12, 2017 election are hereby ordered to set their voting machines to save all processed images in order to preserve all digital ballot images,” the Montgomery County order stated.”
The order came just hours before the votes were counted in the Moore-Jones race.
Democrat Doug Jones took a commanding lead in the Senate race Tuesday night as it became clear that Mobile County was going to be the last county to come in.
Mobile County, a heavily pro-Jones area, tabulated its ballots far slower than the Moore-led red counties elsewhere in the state.